Where is the strike zone?

[daywalkerdad]

I have a couple of theories. Umpires tend to call on were the ball is caught.
1. Many call baseball as well witch drops more after the plate.
2. Slower pitches will often get a higher strike since the ball drops more between the plate and the catcher.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Yeah, it was a bit high. But it was also down the middle and slow and had no spin on it. I teach my girls with 2 strikes you gotta swing at that one.

That pitch should have landed somewhere past @pattar and in the windshield of the white truck in centerfield.

I agree the video is hard to tell. It's difficult enough in real life (3D) but when you reduce it to two dimensions, you loose much of the ability to tell. A good umpire doesn't care where the batter is or where the catcher catches it. Where it enters the plate is what matters. I can't tell in that video.

 

[_MIA_]

I am getting called out all over the place on here today..

 

[Mike Hurd]

A HS game? I was talking about 10 Rec. In a HS game, I'm getting video and sending it to whoever assigns umpires, and he's never working on my field again.

Said noone who doesn't assign umpires

 

[Mike Hurd]

Great post…great info. Thank you! I don’t do college, but I can tell you that - in my experience - in any decent, high quality 18U tournament and even in high quality 14U, if you call strikes where the bottom of the ball catches the batter’s armpits, you are in for a very long day. Frankly, I can’t remember working one of those tournaments where any of our umpires were consistently calling strikes like that - according to the USA book. Those pitchers can put the ball anywhere they want to, and if you give them those high strikes (which apparently are strikes according to USA), they’ll keep throwing them there.

So, question for the rest of the umpires here. Completely disregarding rec league games and B or C level tournaments for the moment, are you guys really consistently calling strikes on pitches where the bottom of the ball catches the “lower part of the sternum?”

I love the high strikes. Would rather call them strikes than balls. That's why I call the book, period. If coaches and/or umpires don't like it, get the rule book changed. And yes, I have called these strikes at 18U gold level tournaments. No issues.

 

[radness]

Hit The Ball

 

[Rolling Hard]

Unless he has been calling that pitch a ball all game and suddenly decided it was a strike for a single at bat ,then I agree, HIT THE BALL.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Was going to start a new thread but this one was good.
Does the strike zone get a little bigger with a full count? I say yes. WHY?
Is it the umps way of instinctively or subconsciously sending a message to inform batters to quit looking for a walk? Or maybe they don't want to hear the groans and banter from the fans? Or maybe they just want to practice their newest punch out techniques?
Some umps take obvious pleasure in ringing them up looking.

 

[Agcy]

Was going to start a new thread but this one was good.
Does the strike zone get a little bigger with a full count? I say yes. WHY?
Is it the umps way of instinctively or subconsciously sending a message to inform batters to quit looking for a walk? Or maybe they don't want to hear the groans and banter from the fans? Or maybe they just want to practice their newest punch out techniques?
Some umps take obvious pleasure in ringing them up looking.

I would tend to agree. I watched it happen this weekend at a D2 college game. He hadn't called pitches that far outside a strike all day, until a full count came along.

Honestly, my default is that I get a little tighter zone with a full count. I think subconsciously I want to see the hitter succeed. So, I have to take an extra half second to see it again and make sure I know where I would chart it before I make the call.

 

[tomorrow]

Was going to start a new thread but this one was good.
Does the strike zone get a little bigger with a full count? I say yes. WHY?
Is it the umps way of instinctively or subconsciously sending a message to inform batters to quit looking for a walk? Or maybe they don't want to hear the groans and banter from the fans? Or maybe they just want to practice their newest punch out techniques?
Some umps take obvious pleasure in ringing them up looking.

I had not seen this thread before, it is really good..... thanks for the bump